Hungarian speed skating World Cup victory
Viktor Knoch performed a sport historical deed by being the fastest on the 500m short track speed skating World Cup in Erzurum, origo.hu says.
The 25 year-old Knoch became the first Hungarian World Cup winner of this kind of sport. Knoch beat the Canadian Olympic Champion Charles Hamelin in the quarter and semifinals.
In the final, the Chinese Wu Ta-ching ranked second and Hamelin was the third.
“I’m very happy; I did not expect such a result. I felt tired after the World Cup in Germany. In addition, I could not get through the qualifier with a good time, so I expected that the quarter final could be the final destination for me” – said Viktor Knoch. He added: in the finals, he had luck, because after the start, the others collided a little, so he had advantage.
The women’s relay formed by Bernadett Heidum, Szandra Lajtos, Sara Luca Bacskai and Petra Jaszapati would be interested in the B finals, but due to the injury of Heidum and the illness of Bacskai the professional staff made the team withdraw, origo.hu says.
According to the results of the six World Cups of the season, Knoch and Sandor Liu Shaolin ranked the highest among the Hungarians: the former closed the season on 500m as fifth and the latter on 1000m as seventh. The men’s relay became fourth and the women’s became eighth, so both will be able to compete in the World Championship in Moscow, in mid-March.
“The rejuvenation concept on the female line proved successful, although it was showed in the earning of the Bronze medal in the European Championship” – Istvan Darazs, speed skating-sectoral director of the Hungarian alliance evaluated the season. He added: “At the boys, we saw the results of the work done last years, not only for the European Championship, but the World Cup-series, where we not just in relays, but by Viktor Knoch and Sandor Liu Shaolin, we also could won medals in individual.
Istvan Darazs added, the goal remains the successful participation at the 2018 Pyeongchang Winter Olympics.
based on the article of origo.hu
translated by BA
Photo: pecsiplusz.hu
Source: http://origo.hu
